Chris Hadfield: The astronaut's guide to flat Earth theory

An updated version by Live Science staff was republished on May 30, Members of the Flat Earth Society claim to believe the Earth is flat. The belief that the Earth is flat has been described as the ultimate conspiracy theory. According to the Flat Earth Society's leadership, its ranks have grown by people mostly Americans and Britons per year since Judging by the exhaustive effort flat-earthers have invested in fleshing out the theory on their website , as well as the staunch defenses of their views they offer in media interviews and on Twitter, it would seem that these people genuinely believe the Earth is flat.

Through a flat-earther's eyes

The Conspiracy is the blanket term most commonly used by proponents of Zeteticism to refer to the active faking of space travel. It is most often associated with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration NASA , its constituents and fellow so-called "space agencies" as well as those who are informed by them including government. Though unknown exactly where or when the concept originated, earliest references have been attributed to the Flat Earth Society under the leadership of Samuel Shenton. There is no Flat Earth Conspiracy. NASA is not hiding the shape of the earth from anyone.

There are numerous hypotheses being bandied about that attempt to explain why people would genuinely believe the world is flat, despite the significant decrease in life quality. Leaving the psychology aside for the moment, we were curious about another aspect of this out-of-step ideology. The Flat Earth Society TFES is renowned for a few things, including their fundamentally off-piste belief system and their unnervingly persistent courtesy on their curious Twitter account. They also have their own Wiki , which is far more bellicose in its support for their belief system than their social media acolytes tend to be. The use of the word usurpers is an interesting turn of phrase, as it suggests that those pesky round earthers have essentially robbed them of the mantle of truth. This website uses cookies to improve user experience.

Modern flat Earth societies are organizations that promote the belief that the Earth is flat rather than a globe. Such groups date from the middle of the 20th century; some adherents are serious and some are not. Those who are serious are often motivated by pseudoscience or conspiracy theories. Through the use of social media, flat Earth theories have been increasingly espoused by individuals unaffiliated with larger groups, many of which have members from several countries. Modern flat Earth belief originated with the English writer Samuel Rowbotham — Based on conclusions derived from the Bedford Level experiment , Rowbotham published a pamphlet Zetetic Astronomy. He later expanded into a book Earth Not a Globe , proposing the Earth is a flat disc centred at the North Pole and bounded along its southern edge by a wall of ice, Antarctica.